Policy control method and system, and relevant apparatus

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses a policy control method and system, and a relevant apparatus. The method includes: receiving, by a policy decision apparatus, a control policy request sent by a gateway device, where the control policy request carries a subscriber identifier; sending, by the policy decision apparatus, a session request message carrying the subscriber identifier to a charging system; receiving, by the policy decision apparatus, a response message; receiving, by the policy decision apparatus, a notification message sent through an established session by the charging system, and generating a service data flow control policy according to information of an occurred charging relevant event; and sending, by the policy decision apparatus, the control policy to the gateway device. The method may implement, based on charging relevant information of a subscriber, policy control of a data flow, flexibility is desirable, and service experience of the subscriber is good.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2011/074772, filed on May 27, 2011, which claims priority toChinese Patent Application No. 201010192415.5, filed on May 28, 2010,both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of data communicationstechnologies, and in particular, to a policy control method and system,and a relevant apparatus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the large-scale deployment of the 3rd-generation (3rd-generation,3G) mobile network, data services are used more and more widely. For anoperator, a desirable quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) needsto be provided in order to enhance competitiveness.

A policy mechanism system for a data service is provided in the priorart, the architecture of which is as shown in FIG. 1. The systemincludes a policy and charging rule function apparatus (Policy andCharging Rules Function, PCRF) 11, an application function (ApplicationFunction) apparatus 12, a subscription profile repository (SubscriptionProfile Repository, SPR) 13, a gateway (Gateway) device 14, and acharging apparatus 15. The charging apparatus 15 may be an onlinecharging system (Online Charging System, OCS) or an offline chargingsystem (Offline Charging System, OFCS), and may perform real-timecharging for a subscriber according to traffic or duration statistics ina gateway. The PCRF may perform a service data flow control policydecision according to subscriber information from the subscriptionprofile repository 13, bearer level information of the gateway device14, some local policies locally configured at the PCRF or service levelinformation of the application function apparatus 12, so as to determinea service data flow control policy. The gateway device 14 controls aservice data flow according to the service data flow control policy,thereby ensuring the quality of service.

Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a policy control methodaccording to the prior art.

The policy control method in the prior art includes:

A1. A PCRF receives a total traffic use quota from an SPR.

A2. The PCRF generates a service data flow control policy, where thecontrol policy includes a monitoring keyword, a use information reportevent trigger, and a traffic use threshold determined according to thetotal traffic use quota.

A3. The PCRF sends the control policy to a gateway device.

A4. The gateway device performs policy control on a data flow of asubscriber service according to the control policy, and accumulatestraffic of the data flow that passes through the gateway and satisfiesthe policy.

A5. When an accumulated value of the gateway apparatus reaches the usethreshold specified in the control policy, or the accumulated value doesnot reach the use threshold specified in the control policy butsatisfies data flow interruption of the policy, or the accumulated valuesatisfies another data flow use information report condition, thegateway device reports the accumulated traffic information to the PCRF,where the use information includes the monitoring keyword andaccumulated traffic information.

A6. The PCRF deducts the reported accumulated traffic information fromthe total traffic use quota. If the service needs to continue and atotal traffic use quota after the deduction is greater than zero, it isconsidered that a new use quota needs to be delivered to the gatewaydevice, steps A2 to A5 are repeated until eventually the subscriber dataflow service stops, and step A7 is executed. If the total traffic usequota after the deduction is equal to or smaller than zero, indicatingthat the total use quota is used up, the control policy of the serviceflow is adjusted according to an operator policy or a subscriber policy,and a new data flow control policy is sent to the gateway device untileventually the subscriber data flow service stops, and step A7 isexecuted.

A7. After the service stops, the PCRF saves the rest of the totaltraffic use quota in the SPR.

During an implementation process of the present invention, the inventorfinds that in the prior art the PCRF may implement policy control basedon traffic accumulation but cannot implement policy control of the dataflow based on charging relevant information of the subscriber, soflexibility is low and service experience of the subscriber is poor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a policy control method and system thatare capable of policy control of a data flow according to chargingrelevant information of a subscriber, and a corresponding apparatus.

To solve the foregoing technical problems, embodiments of the presentinvention are implemented through the following technical solutions.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a policy control method,including: receiving, by a policy decision apparatus, a control policyrequest sent by a gateway device, where the control policy requestcarries a subscriber identifier;

sending, by the policy decision apparatus, a session request message toa charging system, where the session request message carries thesubscriber identifier;

receiving, by the policy decision apparatus, a response message of thesession request message, where the response message is sent by thecharging system;

receiving, by the policy decision apparatus, a notification message sentthrough an established session by the charging system, and generating aservice data flow control policy according to information of an occurredcharging relevant event carried in the notification message; and

sending, by the policy decision apparatus, the control policy to thegateway device according to the control policy request.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides another policycontrol method, including:

receiving, by a charging system, a session request message sent by apolicy decision apparatus, where the session request message carries asubscriber identifier;

sending, by the charging system, a response message of the sessionrequest message to the policy decision apparatus according to thesession request message;

obtaining, by the charging system, a charging relevant event to bemonitored; and

sending, by the charging system, a notification message to the policydecision apparatus through an established session when the chargingrelevant event occurs, where the notification message is used forindicating that the charging relevant event already occurs.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a policydecision apparatus, including:

a policy request receiving unit, configured to receive a control policyrequest sent by a gateway device, where the control policy requestcarries a subscriber identifier;

a session establishing unit, configured to send a session requestmessage to a charging system, where the session request message carriesthe subscriber identifier;

a response message receiving unit, configured to receive a responsemessage of the session request message, where the response message issent by the charging system;

a notification message receiving unit, configured to receive anotification message sent through an established session by the chargingsystem;

a policy generating unit, configured to generate a service data flowcontrol policy according to information of an occurred charging relevantevent carried in the notification message; and

a policy sending unit, configured to send the control policy to thegateway device according to the control policy request.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a chargingsystem, including:

a session request receiving unit, configured to receive a sessionestablishment request message sent by a policy decision apparatus, wherethe session establishment request message carries a subscriberidentifier;

a response message sending unit, configured to send a response messageto the policy decision apparatus according to the session requestmessage;

an event obtaining unit, configured to obtain a charging relevant eventto be monitored;

an event monitoring unit, configured to monitor whether the chargingrelevant event occurs; and

a notification message sending unit, configured to, when the eventmonitoring unit monitors that the charging relevant event occurs, send anotification message to the policy decision apparatus through anestablished session, where the notification message is used forindicating that the charging relevant event already occurs.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a managementnode device, including:

an event defining unit, configured to define a charging relevant eventaccording to an operator policy or subscriber subscription information,and meanwhile define an event class, and a charging system processingrule and policy generation rule which are corresponding to the chargingrelevant event; and

an event configuring unit, configured to configure the charging relevantevent respectively for a policy decision apparatus and a chargingsystem, based on the class of the charging relevant event.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a policy controlsystem, including the foregoing policy decision apparatus, the foregoingcharging system, and the foregoing management node device.

In the embodiments of the present invention, a policy decision apparatusreceives a notification message sent through an established session by acharging system, the notification message carries information of acharging relevant event that already occurs, the policy decisionapparatus further combines the charging relevant event that currentlyalready occurs to generate and deliver a control policy. Compared withthe prior art, the embodiments of the present invention may implementpolicy control of the data flow based on the charging relevantinformation of the subscriber, so flexibility is desirable and serviceexperience of the subscriber is good.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To illustrate the technical solutions according to the embodiments ofthe present invention more clearly, accompanying drawings for describingthe embodiments and the prior art are introduced below briefly.Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following descriptions areonly some embodiments of the present invention, and persons of ordinaryskill in the art may derive other drawings from the accompanyingdrawings without making creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a policy mechanism systemfor a data service according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to the priorart;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a secondembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method for deciding a policy according tocurrent charging relevant data of a subscriber according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method for sending a subscription requestaccording to time information carried in a notification message in apolicy control method according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a thirdembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a method for sending current charging relevantdata of a subscriber to a policy decision apparatus in a policy controlmethod according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a fourthembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a fifthembodiment 5 of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a policy decision apparatusaccording to a seventh embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a subscription requestsending unit in a policy decision apparatus according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a charging system accordingto an eighth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a monitoring unit in acharging system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a management node deviceaccording to a ninth embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a policy control systemaccording to a tenth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The technical solutions of the present invention are clearly andcompletely described in the following with reference to the accompanyingdrawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of ratherthan all of the embodiments of the present invention. All otherembodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art based onthe embodiments of the present invention without making creative effortsshall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The present invention provides a policy control method and system, and arelevant apparatus. For better understanding of the technical solutionsof the present invention, the embodiments provided in the presentinvention are described in detail below with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a policy control methodaccording to a first embodiment of the present invention. The policycontrol method provided in an embodiment of the present invention mayinclude:

B1: A policy decision apparatus receives a control policy request sentby a gateway device, where the control policy request carries asubscriber identifier.

Specifically, upon receiving a bearer establishment request of a userequipment, the gateway device sends to the policy decision apparatus thecontrol policy request to request a service data flow control policy.The service data flow control policy request carries the subscriberidentifier.

B2: The policy decision apparatus sends a session request message to acharging system, where the session request message carries thesubscriber identifier.

Specifically, upon receiving the control policy request, the policydecision apparatus determines that a session needs to be establishedwith the charging system, and sends the session request message carryingthe subscriber identifier to the charging system. The session requestmessage may further carry a session identifier which is used foridentifying the session between the charging system and the policydecision apparatus. All subsequent messages in the session may carry thesession identifier. The charging system in the present invention ismainly an online charging system or is another system with real-timesubscriber charging relevant data.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the policy decisionapparatus determines whether a session between the policy decisionapparatus and the charging system needs to be established, according tosubscription data of a subscriber, a subscriber attribute, a serviceattribute and/or an operator policy. for example, whether the subscriberis an online charging subscriber, and whether the service is an onlinecharging service. If the session between the policy decision apparatusand the charging system needs to be established, further the policydecision apparatus determines whether an another session is alreadyestablished for the subscriber between the policy decision apparatus andthe charging system. If the another session is already established, theanother session may be reused; and if no another session between thepolicy decision apparatus and the charging system is alreadyestablished, the policy decision apparatus determines that a sessionbetween the policy decision apparatus and the charging system need to beestablished.

Upon receiving the session request message, the charging system returnsa corresponding response message of the session request message. Theresponse message carries the session identifier.

B3: The policy decision apparatus receives the response message of thesession request message, The response message is sent by the chargingsystem.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus receives the responsemessage of the session request message. The response message is sent bythe charging system. The response message indicates that an applicationsession between the policy decision apparatus and the charging system issuccessfully established, where the response message carries thesubscriber identifier.

In addition, the charging system obtains a charging relevant event. Thecharging relevant event corresponds to the subscriber identifier andneeds to be monitored for occurrence. The charging relevant event maybe, for example, a account balance of the subscriber is lower than apreset amount. When the charging relevant event occurs, the chargingsystem sends a notification message to a policy control module. Theoccurrence of the charging relevant event in the embodiment of thepresent invention may be construed as that a certain variable in thecharging system satisfies a certain preset condition, or a certainmessage is received. Reference may be made to the description here forthe charging relevant event mentioned in the subsequent embodiments.

B4: The policy decision apparatus receives a notification message sentthrough an established session by the charging system, and generates aservice data flow control policy according to information of a chargingrelevant event that already occurs, where the information of a chargingrelevant event that already occurs is carried in the notificationmessage

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus receives the notificationmessage sent through the established session by the charging system. Thenotification message carries the information of the charging relevantevent that already occurs. The charging relevant event may be a firstclass charging relevant event to which the policy decision apparatussubscribes from the charging system, and may also be a second classcharging relevant event that needs to be monitored and is automaticallydetermined by the charging system. The policy decision apparatusgenerates the service data flow control policy according to theinformation of the charging relevant event that already occurs. Thepolicy decision apparatus may generate the service data flow controlpolicy according to the information of the charging relevant event and apreset policy generation rule.

In the embodiments of the present invention, the policy generation rulemay be set according to an operator policy or subscriber subscriptioninformation, and he policy generation rule may be prestored in thepolicy decision apparatus. The policy generation rule may be sent to thepolicy decision apparatus by a newly added management node device in theembodiment of the present invention. The policy generation rule may be,for example, when the balance of the subscriber is lower than the presetamount, decreasing current quality of service or decreasing a bandwidthof the subscriber. Occurrence of different events may correspond todifferent processing rules, and the policy generation rule may furtherbe adjusted according to a network condition and/or tariff standard.

B5: The policy decision apparatus sends the control policy to thegateway device according to the control policy request.

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the policydecision apparatus may send the generated control policy to the gatewaydevice according to the control policy request. The gateway deviceexecutes the control policy to control a data service of the subscriber.

In the embodiments of the present invention, the policy decisionapparatus receives the notification message sent by the charging systemthrough the established session, the notification message carries theinformation of the charging relevant event that already occurs, and thepolicy decision apparatus generates and delivers the control policyaccording to the charging relevant event that already occurs currently.Compared with the prior art, the embodiment of the present invention mayimplement policy control of a data flow based on charging relevantinformation of the subscriber, and configuration and the monitoring ofthe charging relevant event as well as a triggering mechanism areflexible, so that an operator may perform flexible configurationaccording to an event feature and an operational policy, and implementlean control of the service data flow at a low cost, the flexibility isdesirable, and service experience of the subscriber is good.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a secondembodiment of the present invention.

The policy control method provided in the second embodiment of thepresent invention may include:

C1: A policy decision apparatus receives a control policy request sentby a gateway device, where the control policy request carries asubscriber identifier.

C2: The policy decision apparatus sends a session request message to acharging system, where the session request message carries thesubscriber identifier.

C3: The policy decision apparatus receives a response message of thesession request message, where the response message is sent by thecharging system.

A procedure of executing the foregoing steps C1 to C3 is the same asthat of executing steps B1 to B3 in the first embodiment, which is notrepeatedly described here.

C4: The policy decision apparatus obtains a first class chargingrelevant event that needs to be subscribed to from the charging system.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus may determine, according tosubscriber subscription information, an operator policy, and so on, acharging relevant event that needs to be subscribed to from the chargingsystem. The policy decision apparatus may, according to information suchas service data flow information, service information, rate groupinformation and/or subscriber information, retrieve a correspondingfirst class charging relevant event in a preset set formed of chargingrelevant events. The first class charging relevant event may be called asubscribed event. If the first class charging relevant event is found,the policy decision apparatus determines that the first class chargingrelevant event needs to be subscribed to from the charging system. Thecharging relevant event may be sent to the policy decision apparatus inadvance or preconfigured in the policy decision apparatus, and a sourceof the charging relevant event shall not cause limitation on theembodiments of the present invention.

Specifically, when the first class charging relevant event is retrievedaccording to the service information, a service needs to be identifiedfirstly. The process of identifying the service specifically includes:receiving, by the policy decision apparatus, the service data flowinformation reported by the gateway device, and identifying the serviceaccording to the service data flow information and based on a certainmatching rule. The policy decision apparatus may further receive theservice information sent by an AF, and bind the service information anda service data flow, and the service is identified as long as thebinding is completed. The policy decision apparatus may further receivea service identification result sent by a DPI (Deep packet inspection,deep packet inspection) module. It should be pointed out that the policydecision apparatus may also determine and identify the service in othermanners.

After determining the charging relevant event that needs to besubscribed to, the policy decision apparatus may further judge whether aprecondition of the charging relevant event is satisfied; and if theprecondition of the charging relevant event is satisfied, the policydecision apparatus sends a subscription request to the charging systemthrough the session. The policy decision apparatus may, before sendingthe subscription request, further judge whether other services currentlyused by the subscriber have already subscribed to the charging relevantevent through the session; if the other services currently used by thesubscriber have already subscribed to the charging relevant eventthrough the session, the subscription by the other services currentlyused by the subscriber is shared and the subscription does not need tobe repeated. Definitely, the charging system may also, after receiving asubscription event request of the policy decision apparatus, filter arepetitive subscription request.

C5: The policy decision apparatus sends to the charging system thesubscription request of subscribing to a first class charging relevantevent, so that when the first class charging relevant event occurs, thecharging system sends a notification message to the policy decisionapparatus.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus sends to the charging systemthe subscription request of subscribing to the first class chargingrelevant event in the session request message or sends to the chargingsystem the subscription request of subscribing to the first classcharging relevant event through an established session, where thesubscription request carries the first class charging relevant event.The policy decision apparatus may send the subscription request to thecharging system when the session is being established or after thesession is established.

Upon receiving the subscription request, the charging system monitorswhether the first class charging relevant event carried in thesubscription request occurs, and when the first class charging relevantevent occurs, the charging system sends the notification message to thepolicy decision apparatus, where the notification message carries theoccurred first class charging relevant event.

C6: The policy decision apparatus receives the notification message sentthrough the established session by the charging system, and generates acontrol policy according to information of the charging relevant eventthat already occurs, where the information of the charging relevantevent is carried in the notification message.

Specifically, upon receiving the information of the first class chargingrelevant event that already occurs, where the information is sent by thecharging system through the session, the policy decision apparatusupdates a subscription status of the first class charging relevantevent, and generates a service data flow control policy based on thefirst class charging relevant event that already occurs in combinationwith other input conditions.

C7: The policy decision apparatus sends the control policy to thegateway device according to the control policy request.

Reference may be made to steps B4 and B5 in the foregoing firstembodiment for a procedure of executing steps C6 and C7, which is notrepeatedly described here.

In an embodiment of the policy control method provided in the secondembodiment of the present invention, the policy decision apparatusobtains a first class charging relevant event corresponding to theservice information, and sends to the charging system the subscriptionrequest of subscribing to the first class charging relevant event, sothat when the first class charging relevant event occurs, the chargingsystem sends the notification message to the policy decision apparatus.Compared with the prior art, in the embodiment of the present invention,when a charging relevant event of the subscriber service informationoccurs, policy control may be performed according to the chargingrelevant event, so that during different services performed by thesubscriber, different charging relevant events are monitored, therebyfurther increasing flexibility of the policy control.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method for deciding a policy according tocurrent charging relevant data of a subscriber according to anembodiment of the present invention.

In the policy control method provided in the first embodiment or thesecond embodiment of the present invention, to generate, based onsubscriber charging data, an initial control policy for a certainservice data flow, the policy decision apparatus may further execute thefollowing steps.

D1: The policy decision apparatus sends a subscriber charging dataobtaining request to the charging system.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus may carry the subscribercharging data obtaining request in the session request message torequest subscriber charging relevant data. In addition, the policydecision apparatus may further, after the session is established, sendto the charging system the subscriber charging data obtaining requestthrough the established session to obtain current charging relevant dataof the subscriber, and then execute step D2.

D2: The policy decision apparatus receives the current charging relevantdata of the subscriber, where the current charging relevant data isreturned by the charging system.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus receives the currentcharging relevant data of the subscriber returned by the chargingsystem, according to the subscriber charging data obtaining requestcarried in the session request or according to the subscriber chargingdata obtaining request sent through the session. The current chargingrelevant data of the subscriber may be one or more pieces of thefollowing information: a current account balance of the subscriber, atraffic accumulated counter of the subscriber within a certain period,consumption information of the subscriber within a certain period, asubscriber level, and a subscription package.

D3: The policy decision apparatus generates the service data flowcontrol policy according to the current charging relevant data of thesubscriber.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus may generate the servicedata flow control policy according to the current charging relevant dataof the subscriber. A specific method of generating the service data flowcontrol policy may be: generating, by the policy decision apparatus, theservice data flow control policy according to a built-in policygeneration rule in combination with the current charging relevant dataof the subscriber and other input conditions. For example, a call chargebalance in the current charging data of the subscriber is 10 yuan, andthen the policy decision apparatus matches the condition in the policygeneration rule and decides a corresponding QoS for the service dataflow of the subscriber in combination with other conditions.

D4: The policy decision apparatus sends the generated service data flowcontrol policy to the gateway device.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the policy decisionapparatus sends the generated service data flow control policy to thegateway device. The gateway device executes the received service dataflow control policy to control the data service of the subscriber.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the currentcharging relevant data of the subscriber is obtained, and the servicedata flow control policy is further generated according to the currentcharging relevant data of the subscriber, so that the data service ofthe subscriber based on a current account or consumption status of thesubscriber may be implemented control. Compared with the prior art, theembodiment of the present invention adapts to more application scenariosand an application scope is wider.

Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, uponreceiving the current charging relevant data of the subscriber, thepolicy decision apparatus may buffer the received charging relevantdata, and further, upon receiving the notification message sent by thecharging system, the policy decision apparatus updates the bufferedcharging relevant data according to event information carried in thenotification message. The embodiment of the present invention may reducethe times of interactions between the policy decision apparatus and thecharging system by buffering the received charging relevant data,thereby further decreasing a processing burden of the charging system,and significantly improving real-time processing performance of theonline charging system.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method for sending a subscription requestaccording to event information carried in a notification message in apolicy control method according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

In the policy control method provided in the first embodiment or thesecond embodiment of the present invention, after the notificationmessage sent by the charging system is received, a subscription requestmay be further sent to the charging system according to the eventinformation carried in the notification message, and the proceduremainly includes:

E1: The policy decision apparatus retrieves, according to the eventinformation carried in the notification message and in the preset setformed of the charging relevant events, a third class charging relevantevent which uses an occurred charging relevant event as a precondition.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus retrieves, according to theevent information carried in the notification message and in the presetset formed of the charging relevant events, a charging relevant eventwhich uses an occurred charging relevant event as a precondition.According to the embodiment of the present invention, the found chargingrelevant event is referred to as a third class charging relevant event.

E2: The policy decision apparatus sends, through the establishedsession, to the charging system a subscription request of subscribing tothe third class charging relevant event, so that when the third classcharging relevant event occurs, the charging system sends a notificationmessage to the policy decision apparatus.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus sends, through theestablished session, to the charging system the subscription request ofsubscribing to the third class charging relevant event, where thesubscription request carries the third class charging relevant event.

Upon receiving the subscription request, the charging system monitorswhether the third class charging relevant event occurs, and when theevent occurs, the charging system sends the notification message to thepolicy decision apparatus. After receiving the notification message, thepolicy decision apparatus decides a policy according to the eventinformation in the notification message.

It should be noted that upon receiving the notification message carryingthe third class charging relevant event, the policy decision apparatusmay still retrieve, according to the event information carried in thenotification message and in the preset set formed of the chargingrelevant events, a charging relevant event that uses the chargingrelevant event as a precondition and perform subscription, that is,execute steps E1 to E2 again.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the subscription request issent to the charging system according to the event information carriedin the notification message, which adapts to more application scenarios,and a use scope is wide. In addition, in the embodiment of the presentinvention, by configuring an event-class precondition for an event,policy decision of service data flow control based on a class of eventwith a special precondition is implemented, and by using the method,flexible and accurate policy control across different event domains whenthe subscriber uses the data service may be solved, so that the operatormay perform precise and flexible lean control of the service data flow.

In the embodiments of the present invention, the notification messagewhich is sent by the charging system through the foregoing session andreceived by the policy decision apparatus may carry an occurred firstclass charging relevant event and/or second class charging relevantevent. Upon receiving an occurred charging relevant event sent by thecharging system, the policy decision apparatus firstly performsretrieval in the first class charging relevant events to which issubscribed; if found, it indicates that it is a first class chargingrelevant event, then the policy decision apparatus updates asubscription status of the first class charging relevant event, andgenerates the service data flow control policy; and if the retrievalfails, the policy decision apparatus continue to perform retrieval inthe preset second class charging relevant events, and after theretrieval is successful, the policy decision apparatus generates theservice data flow control policy according to the occurred second classcharging relevant event. The policy decision apparatus supports aprocessing capability on the second class charging relevant event, sothat the policy decision apparatus does not need to subscribe to theevent and maintains a subscription status of the event, which maysignificantly decrease the cost for subscription processing andsubscription management of the policy decision apparatus, decreasestress of the policy decision apparatus and the charging system, andmeanwhile implement lean control of the service data flow based on richinformation of the charging system.

The policy control method provided in the embodiments of the presentinvention is described in the foregoing from the side of a policydecision apparatus, and the policy control method provided in theembodiments of the present invention is described in the following fromthe side of a charging system.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a thirdembodiment of the present invention.

The policy control method provided in the third embodiment of thepresent invention mainly includes:

F1: A charging system receives a session request message sent by apolicy decision apparatus, where the session request message carries asubscriber identifier.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the charging system receivesthe session request message sent by the policy decision apparatus, wherethe session request message carries the subscriber identifier, and thesession request message may further carry a session identifier.

F2: The charging system sends to the policy decision apparatus aresponse message of the session request message according to a sessionestablishment request.

The response message indicates that the session is successfullyestablished between the policy decision apparatus and the chargingsystem, where the response message may carry the session identifier.

F3: The charging system obtains a charging relevant event to bemonitored.

The monitoring in the present invention refers to a behavior that thecharging system can learn occurrence of a subscribed charging relevantevent or non-subscribed charging relevant event, and the charging systemcan, after an event occurs, according to a subscription behavior of thepolicy decision apparatus or configuration of a management node, triggerreporting to the policy decision apparatus the occurred chargingrelevant event. It should be pointed out that, the monitoring does notlimit a specific implementation method of learning the occurrence of anevent and triggering a report action in the charging system.

Specifically, the charging system may obtain, in the following manners,the charging relevant event to be monitored.

1) The charging system receives a subscription request sent by thepolicy decision apparatus in the session request message or in asubsequent session, where the subscription request carries a chargingrelevant event to which the policy decision apparatus needs tosubscribe.

Upon deciding a first class charging relevant event that needs to besubscribed to from the charging system, the policy decision apparatussends a subscription request of subscribing to the first class chargingrelevant event to the charging system through the session requestmessage or the subsequent session, and the charging system receives thesubscription request. The subscription request carries the chargingrelevant event to which the policy decision apparatus needs tosubscribe.

2) The charging system retrieves a preset set formed of the chargingrelevant events for a charging relevant event corresponding to thesubscriber identifier.

The charging system may, according to the session request message sentby the policy decision apparatus, automatically retrieve, in a presetset formed of the charging relevant events in the charging system, asecond class charging relevant event corresponding to the subscriberidentifier, that is, the second class charging relevant event is anon-subscribed event. The charging relevant event may be preconfiguredin the charging system, and a source of the charging relevant eventshall not cause limitation on the embodiments of the present invention.

The management node may further configure a precondition of the event atthe same time, so as to further determine whether current chargingrelevant data of a subscriber satisfies the precondition of the eventafter the second class charging relevant event is found; and if currentcharging relevant data of a subscriber satisfies the precondition of theevent, the management node determines that the charging relevant eventthat needs to be sent to the policy decision apparatus.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the charging relevant eventcorresponding to the subscriber identifier may be, for example, anaccount balance of the subscriber is lower than a certain limit, or adaily traffic accumulated counter of the subscriber reaches a certainlimit.

It should be noted that, steps F2 and F3 are not subject to a strictprecedence, and F3 may be executed before F2.

F4: The charging system monitors whether the charging relevant eventoccurs, and when the monitored charging relevant event occurs, thecharging system sends a notification message to the policy decisionapparatus through the established session, where the notificationmessage is used for indicating that the charging relevant event alreadyoccurs.

Specifically, the charging system monitors whether the charging relevantevent occurs, and when the monitored charging relevant event occurs,sends the notification message to the policy decision apparatus throughthe session established in step F2, where the notification message isused for indicating that the charging relevant event already occurs, andthe notification message may carry one or multiple charging relevantevents that already occur.

The policy decision apparatus receives the notification message sentthrough the session by the charging system, and performs policy decisionaccording to event information in the notification message. Referencemay be made to the first embodiment and the second embodiment of theforegoing method for a detailed procedure of the policy decisionperformed by the policy decision apparatus, which is not repeatedlydescribed here.

In the policy control method provided in the third embodiment of thepresent invention, upon monitoring that the charging relevant eventoccurs, the charging system sends the notification message to the policydecision apparatus through the established session, so that the policydecision apparatus generate and delivers a control policy in combinationwith the charging relevant event that already occurs currently. Comparedwith the prior art, the embodiment of the present invention mayimplement policy control of a data flow based on charging relevantinformation of the subscriber, and the configuration and monitoring ofthe charging relevant event as well as a triggering mechanism areflexible, so that an operator may perform flexible configurationaccording to an event feature and an operational policy, and implementlean control of a service data flow at a low cost, and flexibility isdesirable.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a method for sending current charging relevantdata of a subscriber to a policy decision apparatus in the policycontrol method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In the policy control method provided in the third embodiment of thepresent invention, a procedure that the charging system sends thecurrent charging relevant data of the subscriber to the policy decisionapparatus may include:

G1: The charging system receives a subscriber charging data obtainingrequest sent by the policy decision apparatus.

Specifically, the session request message received by the chargingsystem may further carry the subscriber charging data obtaining request,and the request is used for obtaining the current charging relevant dataof the subscriber. Alternatively, the charging system receives thesubscriber charging data obtaining request sent through the session bythe policy decision apparatus, to obtain the current charging relevantdata of the subscriber. Upon receiving the subscriber charging dataobtaining request sent by the policy decision apparatus, the chargingsystem executes step G2.

G2: The charging system obtains the current charging relevant data ofthe subscriber according to the subscriber charging data obtainingrequest.

The charging system stores the current charging relevant data of thesubscriber. The current charging relevant data of the subscriber may be,for example, a current account balance of the subscriber, currentvarious traffic accumulations of the subscriber, or current variousconsumption accumulations of the subscriber.

G3: The charging system sends the current charging relevant data of thesubscriber to the policy decision apparatus.

Specifically, if the subscriber charging data obtaining request iscontained in the session request message, the charging system sends thecurrent charging relevant data of the subscriber to the policy decisionapparatus in the response message of the session request message, and ifthe subscriber charging data obtaining request is sent through thesession, the charging system sends the current charging relevant data ofthe subscriber in a response message of a subscriber data obtainingrequest.

Upon receiving the current charging relevant data of the subscriber, thepolicy decision apparatus generates the control policy according to thecurrent charging relevant data of the subscriber and sends the generatedcontrol policy to a gateway device. The gateway device performs controlon a data service of the subscriber according to the received controlpolicy. The policy decision apparatus generates the control policyaccording to a preset policy generation rule, the current chargingrelevant data of the subscriber and other input conditions.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the currentcharging relevant data of the subscriber is obtained at the beginning ofthe session or during course of the session, and the current chargingrelevant data of the subscriber is sent to the policy decisionapparatus, so that the policy decision apparatus generates the controlpolicy according to the current charging relevant data of thesubscriber, which remedies a defect that the notification message sentby the charging system only reflects a change of the charging relevantdata of the subscriber during a use procedure of the service but cannotreflect a history status of the charging relevant data of the subscriberwhen the service starts, so that the policy decision apparatus mayperform accurate service data flow control based on a complete real-timecondition of the charging relevant data of the subscriber in the wholeprocedure of the service.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a fourthembodiment of the present invention.

The policy control method provided in the fourth embodiment of thepresent invention may specifically include:

H1: A charging system receives a session request message sent by apolicy decision apparatus, where the session request message carries asubscriber identifier.

H2: The charging system, according to the session request message, sendsto the policy decision apparatus a response message of the sessionrequest message.

H3: The charging system obtains a charging relevant event to bemonitored.

H4: When the charging relevant event occurs, the charging system sends anotification message to the policy decision apparatus through anestablished session, where the notification message is used forindicating that the charging relevant event already occurs.

A procedure of executing steps H1 to H4 is the same as of that ofexecuting steps F1 to F4 in the foregoing third embodiment, which is notrepeatedly described here.

H5: When the charging relevant event occurs, the charging systemretrieves, in a preset set formed of the charging relevant events, afourth class charging relevant event that uses the occurred chargingrelevant event as a precondition.

Specifically, when the charging relevant event occurs, the chargingsystem retrieves, in the preset set formed of the charging relevantevents, a charging relevant event that uses the occurred chargingrelevant event as a precondition. In the embodiment of the presentinvention, the found charging relevant event is referred to as a fourthclass charging relevant event.

It should be pointed out that step H4 and step H5 are not subject to atime sequence.

H6: The charging system monitors the fourth class charging relevantevent, and when the fourth class charging relevant event occurs, thecharging system sends a notification message to the policy decisionapparatus through the established session.

The notification message carries information of an occurred event, andthe policy decision apparatus performs policy decision according to theevent information in the notification message. Reference may be made tothe first embodiment and the second embodiment of the foregoing methodfor a detailed procedure of the policy decision performed by the policydecision apparatus, which is not repeatedly described here.

It should be noted that when the fourth class charging relevant eventoccurs, the charging system may still retrieve, in the preset set formedof the charging relevant events, a charging relevant event that uses thecharging relevant event as a precondition and perform subscription, thatis, execute steps H5 and H6 again.

In the policy control method provided in the fourth embodiment of thepresent invention, an event-class precondition is configured for anevent, and policy decision of service data flow control based on a classof event with a special precondition is implemented. By using themethod, flexible and accurate policy control across different eventdomains when a subscriber uses a data service is solved, so that anoperator may perform precise and flexible lean control of service dataflows.

To better understand the policy control method provided in theembodiments of the present invention in detail, a specific applicationscenario of the embodiments of the present invention is given asfollows.

Devices that perform interaction in this application scenario include: apolicy decision apparatus, a charging system, a gateway device, and amanagement node device. The charging system in the application scenariois an online charging system or another apparatus which has real-timecharging relevant data of a subscriber.

The newly added management node device, according to an operator policyor subscriber subscription information and so on, defines a chargingrelevant event, a precondition of the event, a processing rule of thecharging system corresponding to the event, and a policy generation ruleof the policy decision apparatus corresponding to the event, andcorrespondingly sends the charging relevant event and the relevant rulesto the policy decision apparatus and the charging system, so that thecharging system and the policy decision apparatus perform correspondingprocessing after the charging relevant event occurs. The gateway devicemay be a gateway GPRS support node (Gateway GPRS Support Node, GGSN) ofa general packet radio service (General Packet Radio Service, GPRS)network, a packet data gateway (Packed Data Network Gateway, PDN-GW) ofan EPC (Evolved Packet Core, evolved core network) network, or otherbuilt-in policy and charging execution function (Policy and ChargingExecution Function, PCEF) modules, and the gateway device may execute acontrol policy sent by the policy decision apparatus and control thedata service.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to a fifthembodiment of the present invention.

The policy control method provided in the fifth embodiment of thepresent invention mainly includes:

S1: A management node defines a charging relevant event and acorresponding processing rule according to an operator definition and/orsubscriber subscription information.

Specifically, the management node receives configuration information ofan operator, subscriber subscription information and so on, and definesan event of a control policy used for subscriber service data flowcontrol. The charging relevant event may be a specific event of aspecifically designated accumulation rule, for example, consumption of adata service reaches 200 yuan. The charging relevant event may also be ageneral event of one accumulation rule, where the accumulation rule isnot specifically designated, a specific accumulation rule needs to bedesignated through an event in combination with another parameter, andthe another parameter may be an accumulation rule identifier or anaccumulated amount. For example, the event is a balance change, and theanother parameter may be that a current value of a balance is 8 yuan.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a precondition of the eventmay also be defined when defining the event, and the precondition in thepresent invention refers to an occurrence premise of the event. Theprecondition may be a non-event-class precondition. For example, for anevent indicating that a certain subscriber data service accumulatedcounter reaches 100 M, the precondition is that the subscriber dataservice accumulated counter must be smaller than 100 M when the event isactivated. The precondition may also be an event-class precondition,that is, occurrence of another event is the premise of occurrence of theevent. For example, for an event “a balance is higher than a presetminimum threshold value”, the precondition may be the occurrence ofanother event “a balance is lower than a preset minimum thresholdvalue”.

The defined event may cover the following contents.

1) An event indicating that accumulated counters of variousgranularities reach a preset threshold value: An accumulation unitincludes an accumulated counter of traffic, duration, consumptionamount, and the number of messages. An accumulate period may include aday, a week, a month, and the like. An accumulation item may be aservice class such as a speech service, a data service, and a messageservice. Also, it may be an accumulated counter based on a rate group,and the rate group is a set formed of a group of services with the samerate. It may also be an accumulated counter used for a single service(identifying a service with the rate group and/or a service identifier).A precondition of this class of event is: a current accumulated counteris lower than the preset threshold value, or an event that “anaccumulation is reset” occurs.

2) An event indicating that an accumulated counter in a chargingfunction module is reset: It refers to that when the accumulated counterreaches a preset threshold value, due to a preset reset condition of anaccumulation item defined by an operator, the accumulation data isreset. For example, the accumulation policy is daily periodicaccumulation, and the accumulation data of the previous day is resetafter zero o'clock. The precondition of the event is: a currentaccumulated counter reaches or becomes higher than a preset thresholdvalue, or an event that “the accumulated counter reaches a presetthreshold value” occurs.

3) An event indicating that an account balance is lower than a presetthreshold value: It indicates that the balance of a certain account orall accounts of the subscriber is lower than a certain threshold value.The precondition is: the current balance is higher than the presetthreshold value, or an event that “a balance is higher than a presetthreshold value” occurs.

4) An event indicating that an account balance is higher than a presetthreshold value: It indicates that the balance of a certain account orall accounts of the subscriber is higher than a certain threshold value,which includes that after the subscriber account balance is lower thanthe preset threshold value, the subscriber account balance becomeshigher than the preset threshold value again because of recharge, orpresentation from the operator. The precondition is that the currentbalance is lower than the preset threshold value or an event that “abalance is lower than a preset threshold value” occurs.

5) An event indicating presentation of traffic for use: It indicatesthat the charging function module starts to authorize the subscriber touse the traffic presented by the operator instead of the traffic paid bythe subscriber, and events might need to be respectively defined for usestart and use end of the presented traffic.

6) An event in other charging systems, for example, the number of timesof recharge or a recharge amount within a certain period.

In the embodiments of the present invention, the defined chargingrelevant events are classified as follows.

Non-subscribed event: an event that affects control of QoS andbandwidths of data service flows on all gateways, or an event that theoperator regards unnecessary to be subscribed to by a policy decisionapparatus. The non-subscribed event does not need to be related to aspecific data service, so it is not necessary to confirm which servicesare currently being used, and this class of event may become effectiveby configuration. That is, this class of event is configured in acharging system, and the charging system determines, according to acondition of a session between the policy decision apparatus and thecharging system, whether a report is needed, and the policy decisionapparatus does not need to subscribe to it. The second class chargingrelevant event and fourth class charging relevant event in the foregoingembodiments are the both non-subscribed events.

Subscribed event: an event that only affects some certain service dataflows on the gateway. As this class of event is only related to somecertain services, a service that is currently being used need to bedetermined first. The policy decision apparatus may learn the servicethat is currently being used, but the charging system cannot learn it,so this class of event needs to be subscribed to in order to becomeeffective. That is, the policy decision apparatus, in use of the serviceor during the use, subscribes to this class of event that is related tothe service, from the charging system. The first class charging relevantevent and the third class charging relevant event in the foregoingembodiments are both the subscribed events.

It should be pointed out that whether a certain event specificallybelongs to a non-subscribed event or a subscribed event is determinedaccording to an operation policy of the operator and positioning of theevent by the operator.

Furthermore, while the event is classified and defined, a processingrule of the charging system and a policy generation rule of the policydecision apparatus which are corresponding to the defined event may beas follows.

The processing rule of the charging system refers to that the chargingsystem correlates the event with an accumulation item or a balancechange monitoring item; in the case of a non-subscribed event, furtherneeds to specify that the charging system, after the accumulation itemor balance change reaches a threshold value, automatically reports theevent based on a certain condition, no matter whether the policydecision apparatus subscribes to the event or not.

The policy generation rule of the policy decision apparatus refers tothat the policy decision apparatus correlates the event with one ormultiple service data flows, and defines policies such as QoS and abandwidth when a combination of the event and other inputs is used as acondition.

S2: The management node sends the defined charging relevant event andcorresponding processing rule to the charging system and the policydecision apparatus.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after defining the foregoingcharging relevant event and the corresponding processing rule, themanagement node device may send the charging relevant event and thecorresponding processing rule to the policy decision apparatus and thecharging system in advance. The management node device may performconfiguration on the policy decision apparatus and the charging systembased on an event class. A configuration object may be a singlesubscriber, a package subscriber, or a subscriber of a certain level.Configuration information includes one or multiple of a serviceidentifier, a rate group, an event, a precondition of an event, and apolicy generation rule that are to be configured for the policy decisionapparatus. The management node device configures one or multiple of theevent, the precondition of the event, the accumulation rule, an eventclass, and so on, for the charging system. The charging system performsdifferent processing on different classes of events, where theaccumulation rule may include an accumulation item, an accumulationmanner, an accumulation period, and the like. The event class mayinclude a subscribed class and a non-subscribed class.

S3: The policy decision apparatus receives a control policy request sentby a gateway device.

The control policy request is used for requesting a control policy andcarries a subscriber identifier.

S4: The policy decision apparatus judges whether a session needs to beestablished with the charging system.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus determines, according tosubscriber subscription data, a subscriber attribute, a serviceattribute, an operator policy, and the like, whether a session needs tobe established with the charging system; if the session needs to beestablished with the charging system, further determines whether asession is already established between the policy decision apparatus andthe charging system for the subscriber; if the session is alreadyestablished, the already established session is reused, and then thestep S7 is executed; and if no session is established, the policydecision apparatus determines that a session needs to be establishedbetween the policy decision apparatus and the charging system, and thestep S5 is executed.

S5: The policy decision apparatus sends a session request message to thecharging system, where the request message carries the subscriberidentifier and a charging data obtaining request.

The request message carries the subscriber identifier to bind thesession to a certain specific subscriber by the charging system. Therequest message may further include the obtaining request for obtainingcurrent charging relevant data of the subscriber on the charging system,so as to obtain the current charging relevant data of the subscriber onthe charging system when the session is established, which is used as aninput parameter for the policy decision apparatus to generate a serviceflow control policy initially. For one same subscriber, only oneinteractive session exists between the policy decision apparatus and thecharging system, so multiple services of the subscriber share thesession.

S6: The charging system returns a response message, where the responsemessage carries the current charging relevant data of the subscriber.

Specifically, the charging system sends the response message to thepolicy decision apparatus, indicating that the session is successfullyestablished. Meanwhile, if the session request message carries theobtaining request for the current charging relevant data of thesubscriber, the current charging relevant data of the subscriber is sentin the response message to the policy decision apparatus.

S7: The policy decision apparatus obtains a subscribed event.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus may, according to thesubscriber subscription information, the operator policy, and the like,determines a charging relevant event that needs to be subscribed to fromthe charging system. The policy decision apparatus may, according toservice data flow information, service information, rate groupinformation and/or subscriber information, retrieve a correspondingcharging relevant event in a preset set formed of the charging relevantevents; and if the corresponding charging relevant event is found, thepolicy decision apparatus determines that the charging relevant eventneeds to be subscribed to from the charging system, that is, thesubscribed event. The charging relevant event may be sent to the policydecision apparatus in advance or preconfigured in the policy decisionapparatus, and a source of the charging relevant event shall not causelimitation on the embodiments of the present invention.

S8: The policy decision apparatus sends a subscription request to thecharging system.

Specifically, after determining the charging relevant event that needssubscription, the policy decision apparatus determines whether aprecondition of the charging relevant event is satisfied; and if theprecondition of the charging relevant event is satisfied, the policydecision apparatus sends the subscription request to the charging systemthrough the session. The policy decision apparatus, before sending thesubscription request, may further judge whether other currently usedservices of the subscriber have already subscribed to the event in thesession; if the other currently used services of the subscriber havealready subscribed to the event in the session, share the subscriptionand repetitive subscription is not needed. Definitely, the chargingsystem may also, after receiving a subscription event request of thepolicy decision apparatus, filter a repetitive subscription request.

S9: The charging system receives the subscription request, and activatesa report mechanism of a subscription event.

Specifically, after receiving the subscription request of the policydecision apparatus, the charging system activates the report mechanismof the charging relevant event subscribed to in the subscriptionrequest, that is, the charging system monitors the subscription event,and sends a notification message to the policy decision apparatus whenthe subscription event occurs, and the method turns to step S11.

S10: The charging system retrieves a non-subscribed event correspondingto the subscriber and activates a report mechanism.

Specifically, after the interactive session between the policy decisionapparatus and the charging system is completed, the charging system,according to configuration of the management node, automaticallyretrieves, in the set formed of charging relevant events, anon-subscribed event suitable for the subscriber identifier, and whenconfirming that a precondition of the non-subscribed event is satisfied,activates the report mechanism of the non-subscribed event.

It should be pointed out that the foregoing steps S6 and S9 are notsubject to a strict execution sequence, and a sequence in the numbers isirrelevant to a sequence of time.

S11: When the subscribed event or non-subscribed event subscribed to bythe policy decision apparatus occurs, the charging system sends thenotification message to the policy decision apparatus.

Specifically, upon monitoring that the subscribed event ornon-subscribed event subscribed to by the policy decision apparatusoccurs, the charging system sends to the policy decision apparatus thenotification message used for indicating that the event already occursand the notification message carrying information of the occurred event.

When the event occurs, the charging system may further retrieve anon-subscribed event which uses the event as a precondition andactivates it. Specifically, when a certain event occurs, the chargingsystem automatically retrieves for the non-subscribed event which issuitable for the subscriber and uses the occurrence of the event as theprecondition, and automatically activates the non-subscribed event. Aprocess of processing the activated non-subscribed event by the chargingsystem is similar to a process of processing other events, that is,after the charging system activates report setting of the event, whenthe event occurs, the event is instantly reported to the policy decisionapparatus, that is, the notification message is sent.

S12: The policy decision apparatus receives the notification message andgenerates the control policy.

Specifically, after receiving the notification message sent by thecharging system, the policy decision apparatus, according to the eventinformation in the notification message and the policy generation rulepreconfigured by the management node, generates the control policy.

In addition, the policy decision apparatus may further, after receivingthe notification message, retrieve a subscribed event that uses anoccurred charging relevant event as a precondition, and subscribe to itfrom the charging system.

S13: The policy decision apparatus sends the control policy to thegateway device.

Specifically, the policy decision apparatus sends the generated controlpolicy to the gateway device, and the gateway device executes thecontrol policy to implement control on the subscriber service data flow.

The policy control method provided in the fourth embodiment of thepresent invention may further include an unsubscription step, andspecifically three unsubscription methods are respectively described asfollows.

1) The policy decision apparatus sends an unsubscription command to thecharging system. The unsubscription command carries one or multiple orall events to be unsubscribed from; or the unsubscription command is forsubscribing to a special event, where the special event indicatingunsubscription of all the events, for example, an unsubscribe-all-events(UNSUBSCRIBE-ALL-EVENTS) event.

2) If all services of the subscriber are ended, the policy decisionapparatus requests that the interactive session between the policydecision apparatus and the charging system be terminated, so thecharging system automatically invalidates all subscribed events of thepolicy decision apparatus when the interactive session terminates, andmeanwhile invalidates all non-subscribed events of which the reportsetting is automatically activated by the charging system.

3) In a service use procedure, if the charging relevant event occurs,the charging system may automatically invalidate the report setting ofthe event after successfully reporting the event to the policy decisionapparatus.

In the policy control method provided in the fifth embodiment of thepresent invention, the management node configures the event, theprecondition of the event, the processing rule, and the like for apolicy decision module and the charging system based on the event class,and based on the configuration of the management node, thenon-subscribed event and the subscribed event may be differentiated. Forthe non-subscribed event, the charging system may automatically activatethe report setting of the non-subscribed event when the interactivesession between the policy decision module and the charging system isestablished and does not need the subscription by the policy decisionmodule. As the non-subscribed event has a low occurrence probability,and occupies a high proportion among all events that can be reported bythe charging system to the policy decision apparatus, the unsubscriptionmay significantly decrease the cost of subscription processing andsubscription management by the policy decision apparatus and thecharging system, decrease burdens of the policy decision apparatus andthe charging system, and meanwhile implement lean control of the servicedata flow based on rich information of the charging system.

A sixth embodiment of the present invention provides a policy controlmethod to further describe the subscription method in other embodimentsof the present invention in detail.

After receiving a subscription request of a policy decision apparatus,the charging system, according to configuration of a management node andits own capability, judges whether a certain charging relevant event inthe request is supported or whether the charging relevant event can beidentified or whether a precondition of the charging relevant event issatisfied; if the charging relevant event is not supported or cannot beidentified or the precondition of the charging relevant event is notsatisfied, rejects the subscription of the charging relevant event.Optionally, subscription failure information is returned to the policydecision apparatus for the event, and the failure does not affectsubscription processing of other charging relevant events in therequest. That is to say, the charging system performs the samedetermination on other charging relevant events, and does not rejectsubscription of other charging relevant events due to the subscriptionfailure. It should be noted that, if the request has multiple chargingrelevant events whose subscription fail and failure information needs tobe returned to the policy decision apparatus, the charging systemcombines the corresponding subscription failure information in one sameresponse message and returns it to the policy decision apparatus.

Alternatively, when the charging system determines that in thesubscription request sent by the policy decision apparatus, any chargingrelevant event is not supported or cannot be identified or aprecondition of the charging relevant event is not satisfied, rejectsthe subscription request message, that is, rejects the subscription ofall events in the subscription request message, and returns a responsemessage of the request message, indicating that all the events fail tobe subscribed to.

Update of subscribed events by the policy decision apparatus in theestablished session, as shown in step E2, may be specificallyimplemented in the following manners.

Method 1: The policy decision apparatus sends a subscription updatemessage to the charging system, where the message only carries acharging relevant event that needs to be newly subscribed to and asubscription request or a charging relevant event that needs to beunsubscribed from and an unsubscription request, and does not carry anunaffected charging relevant event. Upon receiving the subscriptionupdate message, the charging system, based on a group of eventssubscribed to by the policy decision apparatus previously and the updatemessage, adds the subscription of the new charging relevant event, andunsubscribes from the charging relevant event that the message requeststo unsubscribe.

Method 2: The policy decision apparatus sends a subscription updatemessage to the charging system, where the subscription update messagehas to carry all charging relevant events and a subscription request,that is, includes a newly subscribed charging relevant event and acharging relevant event that is already subscribed to but still needssubscription, that is to say, all charging relevant events thatcurrently need subscription need to be sent. Upon receiving thesubscription update message, the charging system unsubscribes from allevents subscribed to by the policy decision apparatus previously, andperforms the subscription to all the charging relevant events in thesubscription update message.

The policy control methods provided in the embodiments of the presentinvention are described in detail in the foregoing, and in the followingan apparatus corresponding to the method embodiments of the presentinvention is given.

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a policy decision apparatusaccording to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

The policy decision apparatus provided in the sixth embodiment of thepresent invention includes:

a policy request receiving unit 110, configured to receive a controlpolicy request sent by a gateway device, where the control policyrequest carries a subscriber identifier;

a session establishing unit 120, configured to send a session requestmessage to a charging system, where session request message carries thesubscriber identifier;

a response message receiving unit 130, configured to receive a responsemessage of the session request message, where the response message issent by the charging system;

a notification message receiving unit 140, configured to receive anotification message sent through an established session by the chargingsystem;

a policy generating unit 150, configured to, according to information ofa charging relevant event that already occurs, where the information iscarried in the notification message, generate a service data flowcontrol policy; and

a policy sending unit 160, configured to, according to the controlpolicy request, send the control policy to the gateway device.

The policy decision apparatus provided in the sixth embodiment of thepresent invention may be used in the policy control method provided inthe foregoing corresponding first embodiment, and reference may be madeto the foregoing method embodiment for a detailed execution procedure,which is not repeatedly described here.

Furthermore, the policy decision apparatus provided in the embodiment ofthe present invention may further include:

a subscription event obtaining unit 170, configured to obtain a firstclass charging relevant event that needs to be subscribed to from thecharging system; and

a subscription request sending unit 180, configured to send asubscription request of subscribing to the first class charging relevantevent to the charging system, so that the charging system, when thefirst class charging relevant event occurs, sends the notificationmessage to the policy decision apparatus.

In the embodiment of the policy control method provided in the secondembodiment of the present invention, the policy decision apparatusobtains the first class charging relevant event corresponding to serviceinformation, and sends the subscription request of subscribing to thefirst class charging relevant event to the charging system, so that thecharging system, when the first class charging relevant event occurs,sends the notification message to the policy decision apparatus.Compared with the prior art, in the embodiment of the present invention,when the charging relevant event corresponding to the subscriber serviceinformation occurs, policy control may be performed according to thecharging relevant event, so that during different services performed bya subscriber, different charging relevant events can be monitored,thereby further increasing flexibility of policy control.

Furthermore, the policy decision apparatus provided in the embodiment ofthe present invention further includes:

a charging data requesting unit 190, configured to send a subscribercharging data obtaining request to the charging system; and

a charging data receiving unit 200, configured to receive currentcharging relevant data of the subscriber, where the data is returned bythe charging system.

The policy generating unit 150 is further configured to, according tothe current charging relevant data of the subscriber, generate thecontrol policy, and the policy sending unit 160 is further configured tosend the control policy generated to the gateway device according to thecharging relevant data.

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a subscription requestsending unit in a policy decision apparatus according to an embodimentof the present invention.

Furthermore, the foregoing subscription event obtaining unit 170 isfurther configured to obtain a precondition corresponding to the firstclass charging relevant event.

The subscription request sending unit 190 includes:

a first judging module 191, configured to judge whether the preconditionof the first class charging relevant event is satisfied; and

a request sending module 192, configured to, when the first judgingmodule 191 determines that the precondition is satisfied, send thesubscription request to the charging system through the establishedsession, where the subscription request carries the first class chargingrelevant event satisfying the precondition.

FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a charging system accordingto an eighth embodiment of the present invention.

The charging system provided in the seventh embodiment of the presentinvention includes:

a session request receiving unit 310, configured to receive a sessionrequest message sent by a policy decision apparatus, where the sessionrequest message carries a subscriber identifier;

a response message sending unit 320, configured to, according to thesession request message, send a response message to the policy decisionapparatus;

an event obtaining unit 330, configured to obtain a charging relevantevent to be monitored;

an event monitoring unit 340, configured to monitor whether the chargingrelevant event occurs; and

a notification message sending unit 350, configured to, when the eventmonitoring unit 340 monitors that the charging relevant event occurs,send a notification message to the policy decision apparatus through anestablished session, where the notification message is used forindicating that the charging relevant event already occurs.

The charging system provided in the seventh embodiment of the presentinvention may be used in the policy control method provided in theforegoing corresponding third embodiment, and reference may be made tothe method embodiment for a detailed procedure, which is not repeatedlydescribed here.

Furthermore, the charging system provided in the eighth embodiment ofthe present invention may further include:

a charging request receiving unit 360, configured to receive asubscriber charging data obtaining request sent by the policy decisionapparatus;

a charging data obtaining unit 370, configured to, according to thesubscriber charging data obtaining request, obtain current chargingrelevant data of a subscriber; and

a charging data sending unit 380, configured to send the currentcharging relevant data of the subscriber to the policy decisionapparatus.

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a monitoring unit in acharging system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Inthe charging system provided in the eighth embodiment of the presentinvention, the event obtaining unit 330 is further configured to obtaina precondition corresponding to the charging relevant event to bemonitored.

In this case, the event monitoring unit 340 in the charging system mayspecifically include:

a second judging module 341, configured to determine whether theprecondition of the charging relevant event is satisfied; and

an event monitoring module 342, configured to, when the second judgingmodule 341 judges that the precondition is satisfied, monitor whetherthe charging relevant event satisfying the precondition occurs.

FIG. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a management node deviceaccording to a ninth embodiment of the present invention.

The embodiments of the present invention further provides a managementnode device, including:

an event defining unit 410, configured to define a charging relevantevent according to an operator policy or subscriber subscriptioninformation, and meanwhile define an event class, and a charging systemprocessing rule and policy generation rule which are corresponding tothe charging relevant event; and

an event configuring unit 420, configured to, based on the class of thecharging relevant event, respectively configure the charging relevantevent, the policy generation rule and the charging system processingrule for the policy decision apparatus and the charging system, so thatthe charging system and the policy decision apparatus perform differentprocessing on different classes of charging relevant events.

It should be noted that, the management node device in the embodiment ofthe present invention may be integrated to the policy decision apparatusor the charging system, that is, used as a certain function module inthe policy decision apparatus or the charging system.

FIG. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a policy control systemaccording to a tenth embodiment of the present invention.

The embodiments of the present invention further provide a policycontrol system, including: a policy decision apparatus 510, a chargingsystem 520, and a management node device 530. Reference may be made tothe foregoing corresponding apparatus embodiments for specificstructures of the policy decision apparatus 510 and the charging system520 and the management node device 530, which are not repeatedlydescribed here.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the illustration ofthe method embodiments of the present invention for the content such asinformation interaction among the units and modules and the executionprocedures in the foregoing systems and apparatus because they are basedon the same concept as the method embodiments of the present invention,which are not repeatedly described here.

Reference may all made be to the relevant procedures provided in eachforegoing method embodiment for interaction among the units provided ineach apparatus, server, and system embodiment of the present inventionand relevant information, and reference may be made to each foregoingembodiment for a specific function and processing process, which are notrepeatedly described here.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or part ofthe processes of the methods according to the foregoing embodiments maybe implemented by a computer program instructing relevant hardware. Theprogram may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. When theprogram is run, the processes of each foregoing method according to theembodiments are included. The storage medium may be a magnetic disk, acompact disk, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), a randomaccess memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), and the like.

The policy control method and system, and the relevant apparatus of thepresent invention are introduced in detail in the foregoing. Persons ofordinary skill in the art may make changes to both the specificimplementation manners and the application scope according to the ideain the embodiments of the present invention, and the content of thespecification shall not be construed as a limitation of the presentinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A policy control method, comprising: receiving,by a policy decision apparatus, a control policy request sent from agateway device, wherein the control policy request carries a subscriberidentifier; sending, by the policy decision apparatus, a session requestmessage to a charging system, wherein the session request messagecarries the subscriber identifier; receiving, by the policy decisionapparatus, a response message of the session request message from thecharging system to indicate that a session between the policy decisionapparatus and the charging system is established; receiving, by thepolicy decision apparatus, a notification message sent through theestablished session from the charging system, wherein the notificationmessage carriers information of a non-subscribed charging relevant eventthat has occurred, and the non-subscribed charging relevant event is notsubscribed to by the policy decision apparatus, and generating a servicedata flow control policy according to the information of the occurrednon-subscribed charging relevant event carried in the notificationmessage; and sending, by the policy decision apparatus, the controlpolicy to the gateway device according to the control policy request. 2.The method according to claim 1, further comprising: requesting, by thepolicy decision apparatus, that the interactive session between thepolicy decision apparatus and the charging system be terminated if allservices of a subscriber are terminated; invalidating, by the chargingsystem, all subscribed events of the policy decision apparatus when theinteractive session terminates, and invalidating all non-subscribedevents of which a report setting is automatically activated by thecharging system.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein thegenerating, by the policy decision apparatus, according to theinformation of the occurred non-subscribed charging relevant eventcarried in the notification message, the service data flow controlpolicy, comprises: retrieving, by the policy decision apparatus and froma preset non-subscribed charging relevant events, the non-subscribedcharging relevant event that has already occurred, if the occurrednon-subscribed charging relevant event is found, determining that thenon-subscribed charging relevant event can be identified, performingpolicy decision based on the non-subscribed charging relevant event, andgenerating, according to the information of the non-subscribed chargingrelevant event, the service data flow control policy.
 4. The policycontrol method according to claim 1, wherein after the notificationmessage sent by the charging system is received, the method furthercomprises: when a charging relevant event occurs, retrieving, by thecharging system, in a preset set formed of the charging relevant events,a non-subscribed charging relevant event that uses the occurred chargingrelevant event as a precondition; and monitoring, by the chargingsystem, the non-subscribed charging relevant event, and when thenon-subscribed charging relevant event occurs, sending the notificationmessage to the policy decision apparatus through the establishedsession, wherein the notification message is used for indicating thatthe non-subscribed charging relevant event has already occurred.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the non-subscribed chargingrelevant event is configured in the charging system, and the chargingsystem determines, according to the subscriber identifier and acondition of the session between the policy decision apparatus and thecharging system, whether the non-subscribed charging relevant eventneeds to be monitored and reported to the policy decision apparatus. 6.A policy control method, comprising: receiving, by a charging system, asession request message sent from a policy decision apparatus, whereinthe session request message carries a subscriber identifier; sending, bythe charging system, according to the session request message, to thepolicy decision apparatus a response message of the session requestmessage to indicate that a session between the policy decision apparatusand the charging system is established; obtaining, by the chargingsystem, a non-subscribed charging relevant event to be monitored,wherein the non-subscribed charging relevant event is not subscribed toby the policy decision apparatus; monitoring whether the non-subscribedcharging relevant event occurs; and sending, by the charging system, anotification message to the policy decision apparatus through theestablished session when the non-subscribed charging relevant eventoccurs, wherein the notification message carries information ofnon-subscribed charging relevant event that has occurred.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 6, wherein the obtaining the non-subscribed chargingrelevant event to be monitored comprises: retrieving, by the chargingsystem and in a preset set of the charging relevant events, anon-subscribed charging relevant event corresponding to the subscriberidentifier.
 8. The policy control method according to claim 6, furthercomprising: obtaining, by the charging system, a preconditioncorresponding to the non-subscribed charging relevant event to bemonitored; wherein the monitoring whether the charging relevant eventoccurs comprises: judging whether the precondition of the non-subscribedcharging relevant event is satisfied, when the precondition of thenon-subscribed charging relevant event is satisfied, monitoring whetherthe non-subscribed charging relevant event occurs.
 9. The policy controlmethod according to claim 6, further comprising: when the chargingrelevant event occurs, retrieving, by the charging system and in apreset set formed of the charging relevant events, a non-subscribedcharging relevant event using an occurred charging relevant event as aprecondition; and monitoring, by the charging system, the non-subscribedcharging relevant event, and when the non-subscribed charging relevantevent occurs, sending the notification message to the policy decisionapparatus through the established session, wherein the notificationmessage is used for indicating that the non-subscribed charging relevantevent has already occurred.
 10. A non-transitory computer readablemedium storing program codes for performing a policy control method in apolicy decision apparatus, wherein the program codes comprise:instructions for receiving a control policy request sent by a gatewaydevice, wherein the control policy request carries a subscriberidentifier; instructions for sending a session request message to acharging system, wherein the session request message carries thesubscriber identifier; instructions for receiving a response message ofthe session request message from the charging system to indicate that asession between the policy decision apparatus and the charging system isestablished; instructions for receiving a notification message sentthrough an established session from the charging system, wherein thenotification message carries information of a non-subscribed chargingrelevant event that has occurred, and the non-subscribed chargingrelevant event is not subscribed to by the policy decision apparatus;instructions for generating a service data flow control policy accordingto the information of the occurred non-subscribed charging relevantevent, wherein the information is carried in the notification message;and instructions for sending the control policy to the gateway deviceaccording to the control policy request.
 11. A non-transitory computerreadable medium storing program codes for performing a policy controlmethod in a charging system, wherein the program code comprises:instructions for receiving a session establishment request message sentfrom a policy decision apparatus, wherein the session establishmentrequest message carries a subscriber identifier; instructions forsending a response message to the policy decision apparatus according tothe session request message to indicate that a session between thepolicy decision apparatus and the charging system is established;instructions for obtaining a non-subscribed charging relevant event tobe monitored wherein the non-subscribed charging relevant event is notsubscribed to by the policy decision apparatus; instructions formonitoring whether the non-subscribed charging relevant event occurs;and when the event monitoring unit monitors that the non-subscribedcharging relevant event occurs, instructions for sending a notificationmessage to the policy decision apparatus through an established session,wherein the notification message carries information of a non-subscribedcharging relevant event that has occurred.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium according to claim 11, wherein thenon-subscribed charging relevant event is configured in the chargingsystem, and the step of obtaining a non-subscribed charging relevantevent to be monitored comprises determining, according to the subscriberidentifier and a condition of the session between the policy decisionapparatus and the charging system, whether the non-subscribed chargingrelevant event needs to be monitored and reported to the policy decisionapparatus.